Popular tourist spot in Cornwall renamed ‘binhole’ by angry residents

The popular tourist spot of Mousehole in Cornwall has been renamed ‘binhole’ by some residents because of the large numbers of redundant wheelie bins lining the streets.

The bins have been left outside in clusters waiting to be picked up as part of a change to rubbish collections in Cornwall which has seen the roll out of new grey bins. West Cornwall is the third part of the county to see the changes.

In Mousehole the new bins have been delivered but the old ones have not been taken away, a problem made worse by the narrow streets of the picturesque village.

Local resident Kim Hambleton said: "I call our village 'binhole'. There are bins everywhere. Some of these bins are covered in seagull poo. Others have festering stinking rubbish in them. It's absolutely disgusting. I know locals are up in arms. It's bad enough for us but poor visitors who come to enjoy one of the most beautiful harbours in Cornwall.

"I think it's bad management. No common sense. You'd think it would make sense to drop a new bin in and take one away at the same time. But no. Our village is looking very sad right now. It doesn't look good at all."

Another resident Jane Johnson said: "There are bins of all colours strewn everywhere. Holiday lets [which should not be given council bins as they must pay for a private collection service] are getting them as well as residents. There's nowhere to put the old bins, as no-one has any outside space here.”

Tim Pullen added: "It's very unpleasant and unsightly having all these bins. When the bins are done every Tuesday the whole streets are blocked. It's just incompetence. I just don't understand why they're waiting until mid-August to take them away."

Local Cornwall Councillor Thalia Marrington said: "It’s obviously a huge operation, changing a whole waste service across and I think this area may has been more difficult as firstly this phase of it is happening in the summertime period now when everywhere is busy, secondly there are a lot of holiday lets and second homes for the council to ‘correctly’ allocate or not allocate to and thirdly, we had the old Penwith bins to remove here whereas other areas didn’t have bins before.

"There have been over 10,000 requests for the removal of old bins and whilst I’ve tried to make the case to come and pick them up quickly, every other seasonally affected area is asking for this too.

"The council is aware there may be a ‘legacy’ bin issue in this area and I’m sure once the new service has ‘bedded in’ and any teething issues have been addressed they’ll be looking at that too. It’s important that we are changing and collecting our food waste too though and coming in line with the rest of the country."

In a statement Cornwall Council said: "Our contractor has already started clearing the bins that households have asked us to collect in the West Cornwall area. Due to the high number of bins to be collected, this will take several weeks to complete.

"Anyone that signed up to this bin removal service, will receive a text on the Sunday before their bin is due to be collected so they know to leave it out.

"The old bins couldn't be collected when the new ones were delivered, as customers still needed to use these until the new service started.

"For anyone who didn't sign up in this area or previous areas, we encourage households to repurpose their old bins - as garden storage perhaps, or a water butt – or donate them to a community group that can make use of it.

"Alternatively, households that did not sign up to the collection service and do not want to keep their old bin can take it to their local Household Waste and Recycling Centre.